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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Honesty Day 5

Honesty isn't really a struggle for me (you can tell that by now, right?). The main reason for posting these days of honesty is to bring to and encourage realness in social media. It's an old discussion but still a relevant one… we post only the pretty stuff so people will think only the best of us.

I'm so very guilty of it, too -
bragging about all the awesome things my kids do and conveniently leaving out the not so good stuff…
making sure the background of every picture is cleared of all the random debri (batman undies anyone?)...
posting all about our awesome trip to this place or that, and conveniently being quiet during all the many days of doing absolutely nothing…
and don't forget about those workout posts, the ones that come once every couple of weeks leading you to believe that I work out all the time when really I probably haven't worked out at all in between pics…
all those things I managed to accomplish today that I wrote all about in my Facebook status? It was more than I've accomplished in an entire week, I did absolutely nothing but stuff my face with peanut butter and dark chocolate chips the rest of the day, and I yelled at my kids the whole time…

Here's the honesty part: the problem is not with these rose-colored posts. We probably shouldn't be laying out all of our dirty laundry for the whole world to see anyway (oops!).

I think the problem is in our (my!) response to others' posts of their "perfect" lives.

When I see someone post a picture of their feet propped up with a hot cup of something delicious in their hand, and a candle burning on the clean coffee table, and not a speck of clutter in sight, I get jealous. It would take me all day to set up a pic like that!

Another post that tends to prick my jealousy bone is seeing pictures of moms with all their kids doing super fun (and of course educational!) things. I start to feel like a horrible mom for not wanting to leave the house and feel stress just thinking about doing those things!

I told Derek the other day that I want to be a family who "does stuff" together. His response: "We do do stuff together." And he's so very right. It's not always glamorous or even post-worthy, and sometimes our "doing stuff" is nothing more than just being together, but I'm working on being truly content no matter what others' lives look like on Facebook.

This is the day that the Lord has made! I will rejoice and be glad in it! Psalm 118:24

O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. Proverbs 30:7-8

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"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than you ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9